I believe it would have a negative effect Adam. .............Now, if we have less and less students taking Irish at Leaving Cert, we will have less and less students studying Irish at 3rd level and after time you won't have the pool of teachers to draw from should you wish to reverse a trend like that in England.

Of course a knock on effect would be students not wishing to take Irish at a Hons level for the Junior Cert, as they won't be taking Irish at Leaving Cert. And some primary schools will choose to spend much less time on Irish as it is not a core subject, and well, why should primary school student teachers have to spend time studying Irish if its not a core subject in the future?

And as the effects trickle down, the need for the Irish summer colleges and the Bean an Ti will lesson considerably.....

Obviously Ger12 is correct. If the Revival of Irish is to be applied to all of the population then compulsion in making everybody learn it is indispensible. This is obvious and Adam should not waste too much time on that aspect of his researches.

Obviously Ger12 is correct. If the Revival of Irish is to be applied to all of the population then compulsion in making everybody learn it is indispensible. This is obvious and Adam should not waste too much time on that aspect of his researches.

.....People who say we should "scrap Irish" dont know what Irish freedom and culture is about and will only achieve a stunted, redundant useless country, full of useless, soulless people...

We should respect one another. In this matter we should respect the English-speaking Irish nation and definitely not spit abuse at them, calling them stunted, redundant, useless and soulless. After all, as well as our fellow-citizens they include our brothers and sisters and our parents who have given us our mother tongue in the first place.

I suppose what is 'relevant' to each person is what each person feels is important or useful to themselves.

That's why compulsion to sit Irish in the Leaving Cert provides a neat example of the contrast between what is 'relevant; in the minds of the politicians and what is 'relevant' in the minds of many (even a majority?) of students. The politicians have the power to make the students comply with exam regulations, but as we know, they do not have the power to make the students actually learn the language. The Revival of Irish is relevant to the politicians because its imagery is linked to their political legitimacy but that does not make it relevant to the cultivation of the mind that we seek through education.

Of course, to those with a taste for Irish and an aptitude for learning it - it is 'relevant'!

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